Egypt (MNN) — When he first heard the full gospel of Jesus, a man we’ll call Ramon was living a life full of darkness.
“Many generations of his family have cast spells and done black magic. He was living in a way in which his entire life was consumed with the pursuit of magic, satanic spells,” says Erik Ouimette with Uncharted Ministries.
An Uncharted team member met Ramon one day and asked him to share a meal. The Christian man could sense “a real darkness, a real hardness” about Ramon, says Ouimette. Their conversation proved it.
(Photo courtesy of Amir Arabshahi/Unsplash)
“Ramon talked voluminously about his spells and his books of dark magic and how that gave him power, how that gave him a sense of meaning and of not being useless in this world — despite the fact he had no relationships with anybody, no job, nothing in his life was going well,” says Ouimette.
“Ramon, it sounds like you’re someone who wants significance and meaning in your life,” the Christian finally replied. “It sounds like you want great purpose, and you know that with great purpose comes power to do things.”
“Yes, yes I do,” Ramon said.
The Christian asked if he could tell Ramon about a real person who had been in Egypt before, who had an entire book filled with stories about the miracles He did — stories not of black magic but of light, truth, and beauty.
Ramon listened quietly to the Christian retell the gospel, going all the way through Jesus’s birth — including His time in Egypt as a child — His life, His miracles, and then about His death. He could see that Ramon had not heard about the cross before.
At the end, the Christian asked Ramon if he was drawn to what he had just heard about Jesus.
“Oh yes, I’m very attracted. This sounds very great,” Ramon said. “This man sounds powerful, but he also sounds kind. This man sounds like he has great purpose for those who follow him, but it seems different than [what] I’m aware of.”
They talked further about what it means to follow Jesus. And just like that, over one simple meal and conversation, Ramon turned from chasing satanic power to accepting the all-powerful God.
“After he accepted Christ, he returned to his home,” says Ouimette. “He brought his big, generations-old books of spells and magic. He brought them out, and he burned them. It was a literal understanding that the figurative past needs to be put to death.”
Living in the light
Ramon is now connected with a small group of believers that Uncharted is working with in his city. There, he will be discipled in his new faith. Praise God, and pray for others in Egypt like Ramon to find Jesus. Pray that Ramon would not be tempted by any renewed desires for personal power.
(Photo by Jonas Ferlin from Pexels)
“The reality of evil means that we need a Savior who is more powerful than the evil one. We find that in Jesus Christ,” says Ouimette. “That will be Ramon’s story, and the story of what we pray will be a generational turn for people in his family.”
In light of this story, Ouimette encourages all Christians to take spiritual realities seriously. However hidden or obvious the evil around us is, don’t excuse it (Ephesians 5:7-16).
“I think we don’t do ourselves any favors when we sanitize the true power of evil. We have to truly call it out for what it is. It is the opposite of the holiness and brightness of light, which means that it’s evil. It’s dark. It’s really bad for us,” says Ouimette. “When we pass it over, we tend to not realize that the power is very real over people who are worshiping the realm of darkness.”
Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Ahmed Badawy via Unsplash.
